STOP LMR in Rose Bay

14/06/2026

🚨 NEW DA FOR DEEP BASEMENT EXCAVATION ON WILBERFORCE AVENUE – HAVE YOUR SAY 🚨

A new development application has been lodged for 35–37 Wilberforce Avenue, Rose Bay (DA 187/2026/1).

The proposal seeks approval for:

▪️ An 8-storey residential flat building
▪️ 31 apartments
▪️ Two levels of basement parking

See the article from the Daily Telegraph in the images for more details.

The site sits a few doors down from the mapped Rose Bay Settlement Area, and across the road from 64 Wilberforce Avenue, where a home became widely known after suffering major structural damage and partial collapse following excavation works for a single storey basement on an adjoining property.

The DA documents on Council’s website do NOT appear to even contain a geotechnical report as at the date of this post. We are eagerly awaiting this report....and wonder how can the other reports be complete without it?

Residents may therefore ask Woollahra Council:

❓ What lessons have been learned from previous excavation-related failures in Rose Bay?

❓ How should another major basement excavation be assessed in a street already experiencing significant development pressure?

❓ Has sufficient consideration been given to the cumulative impacts of multiple basement-intensive developments proposed across the Wilberforce Avenue / Dover Road corridor?

❓ Given Woollahra Council has acknowledged the need for updated cumulative flood and hydrological studies, how are cumulative excavation, groundwater and flooding risks being assessed in the meantime?

❓ How is it equitable for an 8-storey apartment building to sit immediately adjacent to and behind low-density R2 residential homes on Albermarle Ave?

📢 PUBLIC EXHIBITION

DA: 187/2026/1
Site: 35–37 Wilberforce Avenue, Rose Bay
Submissions close: 4:30pm, 17 July 2026

Residents can review the application and make a submission through Woollahra Council.



NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure Paul Scully MP Chris Minns Kellie Sloane MP - NSW Liberal Leader Building Commission NSW Local Government NSW NSW Ombudsman

10/06/2026

Introducing the latest addition to the cumulative impacts of deep basements along Dover Road in Rose Bay - "Hamilton" Rose Bay - 36-56 Dover Road AND 11-31 Hamilton Street.

Read the flyer below sent in to us by a resident. 9 storey building on top of a 2 storey basement - covering an entire block.

Community consultation is via a webinar on Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 16 June from 1-2pm. Register to attend via https://HamiltonRoseBay.eventbrite.com.au

We encourage residents to join the meeting. You will be given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback, according to the flyer..

NSW Department of Planning, Housing and InfrastructureWoollahra Council Paul Scully MP Chris Minns Building Commission NSW NSW Ombudsman Kellie Sloane MP - NSW Liberal Leader

24/05/2026

ACT NOW: NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure aims to remove resident’s rights to consult on development!
Deadline of 3 June.

The aim of the Draft Statewide Community Consultation Plan is to limit community participation across most developments, from neighbouring houses to residential flat buildings.

The Plan recommends that residents will have
- No exhibition or objection rights on most developments
- Neighbours will be given only 7 days notice before works begin. This is after the approval with no ability to challenge.
- A wide range of areas can bypass public exhibition such as State Environmental Planning Policies — which can rezone land and dramatically change what can be built in an area.
- The NSW Government can shorten the consultation process at any time
- Limited protection for Heritage items
- Weakened specialist environmental assessments of impact on the ecosystem and threatened species.
- Significantly increased risk of corruption within the development processes.
The NSW Government is concentrating decision-making power within the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure to the exclusion of consultation with the community and specialist agencies.

This plan will have massive impacts on your local area, without any ability to object. We have attached some very useful information links from Friends of Kuringgai Environment (thank you!) - see their page for a submission guide too.

Make your submission at this link:

https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/draftplans/exhibition/have-your-say-proposed-statewide-community-participation-plan

See www.foke.org.au
NSW Government wants to remove resident's right to consult on development, limiting participation across most development, including neighbouring houses. Please submit your comments on the Daft Statewide Community Participation Plan to the NSW Planning Portal on line before 3 June 2026. FOKE's submission points for your consideration and written responses are on our website www.foke.org.au

23/05/2026

🚨 URGENT COMMUNITY ACTION — LATE CORRESPONDENCE BEFORE TOMORROW (MONDAY) 10AM

Woollahra Council is meeting tomorrow night. Flooding studies are on the agenda as follows:

COUNCIL MEETING — AGENDA ITEM 10.1.2
“Consideration of Development in Medium and High Risk Flooding Areas and Review of Existing Floodplain Risk Management Studies and Plans”

Woollahra Council’s own report now acknowledges:
• the NSW Government’s LMR policy did NOT appropriately investigate flooding risks before commencement;
• NEW flood studies are required for Rose Bay and Double Bay;
• cumulative groundwater studies are now being commissioned; and
• these studies may take at least 12 months — while development applications continue being assessed in the meantime.

The report also recognises the need for flood assessments extending beyond individual sites to include upstream, downstream and adjacent properties.

Residents are asking a critical question:

If updated flood and cumulative impact studies are still required, on what planning and evidentiary basis can major basement-intensive development applications continue to be assessed before those studies are completed?

Residents respectfully ask Council to:
• publicly explain the basis for continuing to assess major excavation proposals while updated flood and cumulative impact studies remain incomplete;
• apply a genuinely precautionary approach to basement-intensive developments in flood-prone and settlement-sensitive areas;
• ensure cumulative impacts are rigorously assessed — not treated as isolated site-by-site issues; and
• recognise that the existence of planning controls does not remove the obligation to carefully scrutinise individual proposals for flood risk, groundwater impacts, site suitability and public interest concerns.
- In the absence of these studies being complete, residents would like to understand how Council could reach any agreements in a s34 conciliation without appearing to act with a level of reckless indifference to these risks?

📧 PLEASE SEND LATE CORRESPONDENCE (asking the above questions and any additional concerns you have) TO: [email protected]

Subject line: LATE CORRESPONDENCE – ITEM 10.1.2 – FLOODING / LMR CONCERNS

⏰ Deadline: 10am Monday before the Council meeting.

Community voices matter.

22/05/2026

Woollahra Council says it “listened to community feedback” on dog parks. So residents are asking:
What about the community feedback on Rose Bay’s LMR risks?
Thousands of pages of submissions.
Expert reports.
Repeated warnings about groundwater, flooding and deep basement excavation in the mapped Settlement Area.
Other councils are working with the State Government on alternative planning pathways.
Meanwhile, Woollahra Council appears focussed on dog parks.....

22/05/2026

Interesting contrast emerging in Sydney’s east.

Waverley Council’s Bondi Junction master plan openly warns against “arbitrary state-led planning frameworks” that ignore “site characteristics, infrastructure capacity or place context”.

That debate goes directly to what many residents are now raising in Rose Bay.

No one disputes Sydney needs housing.

But Rose Bay is not a generic uplift site. It is a mapped Settlement Area with shallow groundwater, flood constraints and increasing cumulative deep basement excavation pressure across entire blocks.

Residents are not asking for “no development”. They are asking where the strategic planning is for the known hydrogeological and infrastructure risks before large-scale intensification proceeds.

Permissibility under broad state planning rules is not the same thing as proving a site is suitable or safe for this scale of subterranean redevelopment.

CouncilNSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure The Sydney Morning Herald Paul Scully MP Chris Minns Kellie Sloane MP - NSW Liberal Leader Cr Will Nemesh - Mayor of Waverley Council

About 3000 homes would be built around a revamped Oxford Street Mall, under a Sydney council’s plan to lock in Bondi Junction as the civic and commercial heart of the eastern suburbs. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/what-3000-more-homes-around-bondi-junction-could-look-like-20260519-p5zymj.html?utm_content=feed&utm_term=metros_social_eds&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sydney_morning_herald&utm_source=Facebook =1779175274

19/05/2026

Thank you to residents for keeping us informed about the community sessions for the two side by side SSD Seniors Developments proposed for Wilberforce Ave & Dover Road (in the mapped Settlement Area). We encourage you to attend the remaining drop in sessions (one is open til 7pm tonight).

17/05/2026

“To progressively — and contemporaneously — excavate an entire connected block within the same groundwater basin is viewed by many residents as an extremely dangerous planning experiment, carrying foreseeable long-term structural and groundwater risks on a far broader scale than anything previously seen locally.”

Thank you City Hub Sydney for sharing the dangers Rose Bay is facing under LMR.

Chris Minns Paul Scully MP Building Commission NSW Kellie Sloane MP - NSW Liberal Leader Woollahra Council Residents First Woollahra Double Bay Residents' Association Local Government NSW NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure

Adjacent retirement villages are planned for Rose Bay, contributing to a cluster of prospective developments that some locals worry will destabilise the water table and cause property damage.

Read more: https://cityhub.com.au/adjacent-retirement-villages-in-rose-bay-proposed-under-planning-reforms/

13/05/2026

An excellent speech by Tim James MP advocating for the community of Save Castlecrag. The lack of good planning under LMR is amplified in Rose Bay when you contemplate the known and foreseeable hydrogeological risks of deep basement developments in the mapped settlement areas of Rose Bay and Double Bay.

However the situation we face here isn't just loss of character or amenity (whilst they are still important and legitimate public interest concerns).

Residents in Rose Bay want to know who will be paying to remediate the very real and foreseeable damage to our homes - and the local environment - should these basement excavations go ahead???

Woollahra Council NSW Ombudsman Building Commission NSW NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure Paul Scully Chris Minns Kellie Sloane MP - NSW Liberal Leader Double Bay Residents' Association Residents First Woollahra Local Government NSW

12/05/2026

Mosman Council is working on an alternative plan.

So what is Woollahra Council’s plan for the mapped Settlement Areas of Rose Bay and Double Bay?

Other councils are exploring local planning responses — and do not face the shallow groundwater, settlement and cumulative excavation risks present in Rose Bay.

So why can’t Woollahra Council?

And residents are still waiting for Mayor Dixson to answer a very simple question:

Will Woollahra Council adhere to the strict 0.3m and 0.2m dewatering controls adopted for the mapped Settlement Areas?

Woollahra Council NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure Paul Scully MP Chris Minns Building Commission NSW Kellie Sloane MP - NSW Liberal Leader